1.0 Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a submunition of a projectile having a fuzed warhead and, more particularly, to a submunition that provides an explosive ordnance with provisions for conservation of its internal battery power or power source, a programmable timer for controlling its self-destruct/neutralizer functions, and other programmable timers that ensure the maintenance of the proper safety features of the explosive ordnance.
2.0 Description of the Prior Art
The U.S. Military is increasingly demanding that all explosive ordnances being developed incorporate a fuzing system, such as an electronic fuzing system, for neutralizing or otherwise self-destructing such explosive ordnance once they have completed their intended mission. The U.S. Military is also concerned that ammunitions, such as explosive ordnances, containing submunitions not release the submunitions under any accidental scenarios.
In accident scenarios, a battery or power source activation event or a submunition release event related to the post-launch system, may occur at the same time or within a few seconds of the primary accident event or a secondary event. The electronics may misinterpret either an accidental submunition release event or an accidental battery activation event causing the submunition to function or to start a self-destruct or self neutralize process thus causing the functioning of the explosive ordnance. It is of primary importance that an apparatus be provided that eliminates any accidental electronic functioning for submunitions that would otherwise cause damage from the explosion of the ordnance.
The U.S. Military is increasingly demanding that the lethality associated with the submunitions be improved. This improvement in the lethality may be accomplished by a known proximity functional mode. It is desired that an apparatus be provided that incorporates a proximity mode so as to not only increase the lethality of the operation of the submunitions, but also the reliability and safety of the submunitions by the introduction of this proximity functional mode.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for controlling a post-launch sequence of an explosive ordnance having a fuzed head that substantially eliminates any accidental electronic arming or functioning of submunitions associated with the explosive ordnance.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide for a proximity function mode used to control the operation of the submunitions of the explosive ordnance.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide safety logic inhibiting any erroneous functional responses of submunition fuze electronics after it is placed on its internal battery or power source.
It is a further object of the present invention to increase the lethality of the submunitions related to the explosive ordnance.
It is a further object of the present invention to increase the overall reliability of the submunitions which, in turn, increases the overall reliability of the projectile.
It is a further object of the present invention to conserve the internal power supply of the fuze, which increases the ability to use smaller batteries or power sources for powering the electronics associated with the submunition fuze which, in turn, reduces the size of the fuze.
It is still a further object of the present invention that allows for better control of the submunitions while still employing the control for the self-neutralization and self-destruct functions for the explosive ordnance.
The present invention is directed to an apparatus that provides an initiation system that controls an explosive ordnance while at the same time provides provisions for the conservation of the associated battery or power source, and provides provisions for programmable timers for setting the self-destructing and/or self-neutralizing functions, as well as other programmable timers that ensure the maintenance of the proper safety features of the explosive ordnance, especially those related to the submunitions of the explosive ordnance.
The apparatus of the present invention controls the submunition of a projectile having a fuzed warhead. The functioning or safely securing of a submunition is dependent upon the occurrence of a battery or power source activation control signal, the occurrence of both the presence and absence of a nesting switch open control signal, and the presence of a valid target control signal. The successful submunition functioning or safely securing is also dependent upon the generation of four commands, (1) self-dud, (2) charge firing capacitor, (3) turn on proximity mode, and (4) fire firing capacitor. The successful submunition functioning is also dependent upon the inhibiting of the self-dud command. The successful submunition being made safe is also dependent upon the activation of the self-dud command. The apparatus comprises a microprocessor having a plurality of routines and subroutines, preferably seven routines, with the seventh routine having three subroutines. The routines and subroutines of a microprocessor provide a method to conserve internal power for the explosive ordnance, while at the same time incorporate self-destruct/neutralizer timers and providing safety logic to eliminate responses to accidents involving submunitions.